Research Ethics Board

Research Ethics Board

The Research Ethics Board (REB) exists to ensure proper ethical procedures are employed in research that involves human participants. Our guidelines are extracted from the Tri Council Policy Statement (TCPS; for more information see Canadian Guidelines). Researchers wishing to conduct research involving human participants must have their project approved by the REB before active research begins.

The following tutorial will give both researchers and members of the REB very helpful insight into the criteria considered in the process of granting ethics approval.

NB: All forms and templates mentioned below are available in the link "Forms and Templates."

Submitting an Application for REB Approval

Researchers interested in submitting an application for ethics approval may download and complete an application form. Applicants must use the most recent version of the application and submit it through email in WORD format to reb@stfx.ca by the "Submission Deadline" in order to be considered at the next meeting.

Please ensure that your submission is free of spelling, grammatical and typographical errors. Applications found to contain multiple errors may be returned to the researcher for revisions prior to being reviewed by the Board.

Fleisch-Kincaid analysis: Question 6 on the REB application deals with Plain Language Usage. If you are concerned about the reading/comprehension level of your participants, Microsoft offers an analysis tool that can assess the grade level of a document. You may find this useful to determine if the content of your research is appropriate for the participants involved. Click here for instructions on how to activate this feature in Microsoft word.

Expedited Reviews -- See FAQ section.What do I need to know once approval has been granted?

The REB administrative assistant notifies the Research Grants Office (RGO) and the Finance Services when ethics approval has been granted and when REB approval has been extended for another year.

Anniversary dates: You are required to submit reports to the REB on or before the anniversary date. This will be required each year following approval until the project is reported to be completed. It is the responsibility of the principal investigator to have these reports completed and submitted on time. You will be reminded of this obligation as the anniversary of original approval approaches.

If a project is not officially closed with the REB before the next anniversary date, the principal investigator will receive a Notice of Approaching Anniversary. The project can be formally declared as complete at that time.

Protocol changes: The principal investigator is obligated to inform the REB as soon as possible with respect to protocol changes that affect the informed consent of participants (TCPS 2- Article 3.3).

Requests for changes in protocol can be made by contacting the REB Chair using the "Request for Protocol Change" form. Principal investigators should consider the changes in the levels of risk and vulnerability of the participants and how they plan to address these changes.The addition of new funding also requires the submission of a "Request for Protocol Change." Be certain to include the funding source, date granted, title of the project awarded funding, and the Principal Investigator of the awarded project.

StFX REB Approval for Undergraduate Research ProjectsEthics approval is required for all undergraduate research with human participants.

Honours Students. In accordance with Tri-Council policy, all honours students' research with human participants must be approved by the University Research Ethics Board. Once the Departmental REB completes its review of such files, the chair of the departmental or programme REB, on behalf of the student, forwards the file including an "Honours Cover Page," to the UREB (email: reb@stfx.ca) for final deliberation and approval. This may be done through email attachment. This two-part process is intended to recognize departmental expertise in subject areas and to meet the Tri-Council guidelines. The StFX REB does not wish to delay honours students' research, so every effort will be made to review these projects in an efficient manner. However, special attention will be paid to research projects involving high risk and/or particularly vulnerable groups of participants.

Other Undergraduate Research. Ethics approval for other undergraduate research and for course-based research will continue to be reviewed at the departmental level only.